Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Move along, Please...Nothing To See Here

It would be difficult to be be thumped more convincingly than the Bucs were tonight. In front of a crowd smaller than the stadium staff on a damp, raw evening, the Reds pounded out fifteen hits, had six guys with multiple knocks - and each one had an extra base hit, too - and destroyed Pittsburgh 9-0.

Charlie Morton had a rough start - three of the first four Red Stockings got aboard as they scored twice in the first frame - but then came around to finish with six innings of three-run, seven-hit ball.

The bullpen wasn't very sharp, either, with Jeff Karstens being tagged with four runs in 1-2/3 innings. Maybe the hidden vigorish rose up to bite him, or maybe coming back on two days of rest after throwing six innings against the Cards Saturday was the culprit.

Johnny Cueto pitched his first ever complete game, giving up one hit while throwing only 102 pitches, and facing just 28 batters, one over the minimum. Ronny Cedeno was his only thorn, with a ground ball single and one plunking.

Oh well, at least there weren't any errors.

Homer Bailey will go against Zach Duke in the Wednesday afternoon get-away game.

-- The Pirates have scored only one run on six hits against the Reds so far in eighteen innings, to add some icing to a generally inoffensive home stand. And Cincy's starting pitching had been terrible, with a 5.31 ERA going into tonight's game.

--The Pirate pitchers had gone 64 innings without giving up a long ball until rookie Chris Heisey hit his first major-league home run in the eighth off Karstens.

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